The present invention relates generally to a signal converter, and more particularly to an electro-fluidic signal converter. Still more specifically, the invention relates to an electro-fluidic signal converter having a body which is composed of laminated-together plates, and to a method of making such a converter.
Electro-fluidic signal converters are devices through which a stream of fluid flows, and wherein the fluid stream is channeled in corresponding with an incoming electrical signal, to produce at the output of the converter a fluid signal in form of a differential pressure whose magnitude is proportional to that of the incoming electrical signal. Converters of this type are already well known in the art e.g. from U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,644.
Fluidic-signal converters operate either with a stream of compressed gas or with a stream of liquid, for example a hydraulic fluid. If they are of the type that operates with a stream of liquid then it is necessary to collect leakage fluid and/or such fluid which does not enter the output of the converter, and to guide it away, advantageously back into a fluid reservoir. Heretofore, this has not been reliably possible, because such converters were never quite sealed with respect to their surroundings.